Biography of Alton Harry Vest - Mercer Co. WV


The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 543


ALTON HARRY VEST, president and manager of the Mer-
cer Hardware & Furniture Company at Matoaka, Mercer
County, was born at Floyd Court House, Virginia, April 3,
1891, and is a son of Abraham Lincoln Vest and Emma
(Thurman) Vest, both natives of Floyd County, Virginia,
where they still maintain their home and where the father
is a representative farmer and a loyal citizen who has been
influential in public affairs of local order. He was born in
1859 and his wife in 1857, and both are members of fami-
lies early founded in the Old Dominion State. Abraham L.
Vest has served as commissioner of internal revenue, as a
member of the board of review of his native county and in
other local offices of trust. His political allegiance is given
to the republican party, and although he bears the name of
the "Great Emancipator," his father, Jacob Vest, was a
soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war, having met his
death while in the army, in the command of Gen. J. E. B.
Stuart. Abraham L. Vest and his wife are earnest members
of the Presbyterian Church, and he is serving as an elder
in the same. He has been for many years affiliated with
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The two sons, of
whom the subject of this sketch is the younger, are asso-
ciated in business, the elder son, Allen D., being vice presi-
dent of the Mercer Hardware & Furniture Company.

Alton H. Vest attended the public schools of his native
county until he was seventeen years of age. He taught
one term of school and for two and one-half years there-
after was employed in the commissary department of the
Solvay Colliery Company at Big Sandy, West Virginia. He
was then transferred to the company's offices at Marytown,
and later continued in service in turn at Springton and
Kingston. His activities in connection with business af-
fairs were interrupted when, .February 6, 1918, he enlisted
for service in the United States Army. He was sent to
Camp Oglethorpe, Georgia, and was assigned to a regi-
ment of infantry. Later he was transferred to the army
ambulance service and sent to Allentown, Pennsylvania, for
training. Upon proceeding to France he was assigned to
the One Hundred and Fourteenth Base Hospital at Bor-
deaux, where he remained on active duty one year. After
the signing of the historic armistice that brought the World
war to a close, Mr. Vest returned to his native land, and at
Camp Meade he received his honorable discharge on the 2d
of June, 1919, with the rank of hospital sergeant. Shortly
afterward he entered the employ of the Flat Top Pocahon-
tas Coal Company as bookkeeper in its office at Herndon,
West Virginia. Six months later he became associated in
the organization of the Mercer Hardware & Furniture Com-
pany, of which representative commercial concern at
Matoaka he has since been associated, first as vice presi-
dent and later becoming president of the firm. Mr. Vest
received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite in
the Masonic fraternity at Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and
is affiliated also with Rajah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., at
Reading, Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Mercer
County Country Club and is one of the vital and progres-
sive young business men of Matoaka.

Mr. Vest married, June 15, 1921, Miss Ella Mastin Bai-
ley, of Matoaka, West Virginia, and they have one son,
Harry Lincoln Vest.


Submitted by Valerie Crook <vfcrook@earthlink.net> 

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